white pine ski race

I need a flashy skinsuit

One nice thing about ski racing is I don't put any pressure on myself and don't expect anything but a good time. The 15k race today was just that a good time, I don't know how I did yet but I didn't crash. Racing is racing and it will do nothing but improve my skills. I was getting dropped on the downhills and bridging back on the steep sections only to come to a near crawl and not able to get around anyone to give me a buffer before the next DH. I need to improve my technique at speed. For being a newbie to ski racing I sure new a lot of the racers , the bike racing tentacles spread far.

While watching the race Eva got bit by a goose! Good thing she was bundled up in her new snow suit.


After the race Rog and I hit the road bikes and put in 1.5 hrs back to emigration, it was a great day for a ride in the mountains and nice to loosen up the legs with a more familiar motion.

700x23 on ice

Crashed in my own driveway this morning! Good thing it was 6:45 and I don't have any close neighbor's because this must have been a sight. I did not have time to clear the driveway last night because Rosie and I hit the town for a date. The driveway only had about 2" of snow but the car tracks were solid ice. I was on the road bike and figured I could just ride down between the tracks in the fresh snow. No problem until I ended up in the tire tracks on a solid sheet of ice. I rode it most of the way down the driveway but right before the street the wheels went out from under me and slid until they contacted the asphalt where they instantly snapped back into position causing me to buck off the top tube on the "far" inside of my thigh. I landed on top of my bike in the middle of the street. I am going to have some sore spots tomorrow.

I think tomorrow I will hit the ski race at white pine and be humbled by some fat, chain smoking Norwegian on the skate skis. To quote Nathan Schultz "bike racers on skis look like terydactyls". I will at least have fun trying.

Wish I was in SG shredin with foxy, sounds fun. I might hit up a winter moab trip next week, ride the red and ski the La Sals.

new camera pics

Christmas morning hike in Emigration


Christmas evening hike in Provo


Eva unwrapping gifts- hands down the highlight of the season and maybe the year!


Eva excited about a pink hippo chair from grandpa


View from Hobble Creek on the day after Christmas road ride


The "stare" with some horizontal time in the back ground


Long live holiday cheer!

back at it

Nearly back to my active self and just in time for a little snow fall and holiday break.

Mon: 1hr ski at mtn dell, track hanging on by a thread before some new snow.

Tues: 1 hr ride on road bike (commuting)

Wed: 3hrs on road bike with Free Sager, rode up city creek and found that road bikes rip on frozen tundra plowed roads, almost made it to the top. Itchy feet in the shower!

Thurs: 1 hr ski at mtn dell, track improving.

Fri: 2 hour ski at mtn in the soft stuff, upper loop much improved and across the stream is not bad. Every time I go I see at least one cyclist avoiding the trainer, today: Susie, Louder, Daryl, and another gut I can't remember

Sat: 3 hr MTB in the snow with Rog and the Bro's. Conditions not perfect as the snow is very dry and blown. We did find a few good trails by the shooting range, Matts track, and green pipe road. Rock canyon and mental DH unrideable. Pulled Eva on a sled behind the 4 wheeler for the first time, she is into it.

Today: may ski the track and rip the MTB on some trails around the house, will see!

One good thing about being sick is you absolutely appreciate your health afterward.

ride/ski safe

human-bike interface

Feeling human again. My break from the bike came to end today, I think it was about 10 days. I rode about 1 hr on the road bike and tested a new cleat shim. I I don't take much time off the bike because I don't like being out of shape and don't have the time to get back into shape. For the working stiff like myself a huge break followed by weeks of noodling out slow base miles is not practical. Plus its no fun.

I will start riding again to a from work at a steady pace with an occasional effort thrown in for kicks, this helps me maintain some cycling specific fitness despite the short days and without having to crush my morale and psychological health by riding a trainer. I will skate ski 3-4x week to build the aerobic engine while remaining hungry and fresh for the bike. I will also throw in some long weekend rides followed by some intensity as the racing season grows near. In simple terms that's my winter training plan.

Today I hooked up with Dr. Max Testa to check out the cycling program at TOSH. A PT friend of mine who lives in the canyon and works with the US speedskating and ski teams hooked my up with Max and after spending the morning with him I know why he is considered "the man" when it comes to cycling docs. What a cool guy. I had him check out my hip issue and he came to the same conclusion I had but offered some new and hopefully effective treatment and alignment solutions. More on this another day. I plan to f/u with him again in a couple weeks, will see how it goes. I also ran into Amber Neben who is in town seeing Dr Heiden about a knee issue, I think the last time I saw her was at 24hrs of Moab when we raced for Sobe. Now she is big time euro roadie.
Anyway, this is a good time of year to sort out injuries and human machine interface issues.

time for bed, need my beauty sleep!

hurts to watch

Today was tough to stomach. Cross nationals taking place without me, and to rub it in the weather is nice. Props to the Utah guys for what sounds like some great racing. I guess peterzak just missed the win in the 30-34, and to think I would have had a front row start in that race, I don't even want to think about the possibilities.

At least I am having fun with USADA. I can't wait for this to be over because I have a great story to tell, it keeps getting better! Just wait.

So as best as I can tell I have had the flu, serious bad news. This is the first time for me and I have a whole new respect for influenza. I finally made it to work late in the week but still have yet to bounce back. On the positive side, I was striken on a break from the bike. I am coming up on the longest period I have not ridden in as long as I can remember. Should do me good in the long run.

Got outside for a short ski this afternoon, just for the sake of being outdoors, it smelled nice. Hope to be feeling well enough to ski tomorrow and maybe go watch Tav at the supertour.

Back to watching the jazz game, don't know if I will make to the 4th.

Sick of waiting-waiting fo Sick

I was supposed to hear from USADA today but didn't.

Again woke up with a sore throat and head ache, this is like the 4th time in 6-7 weeks, I don't know what's going on. Rosie thinks I have strep throat and have done for months, it just goes dormant for a while and I feel ok and then I get worn down and it flares up again. She is making me go get swabbed tomorrow and see what's going on. I hate going to the Dr and don't think I have ever been just for being sick, I guess if it really is strep throat it's good to take care of it before the colonization becomes rheumatic fever.

Got 6-7 inches of snow over night which saved Mtn dell.

I have some bikes for sale if anyone is looking:
53cm Raleigh cross bike, aluminum/carbon frame from last year with carbon fork and all brand new components.
55 cm Raleigh cross bike new in box, 2007, like the one I raced this year but one size bigger.
2005 med Raleigh inferno full suspension XC with SRAM XO and the works, won the E100 on this bike, it rips.
55cm Raleigh team road bike, full carbon and 2006 dura ace. great bike.
drop me a line with any questions.

Also, my apartment will be available in late January if anyone is looking for a cool place to live.

yeaaa!

Done 2!

Utah cylocross finished with a bang in some real mud, we often don't get to race in the mud so we have to relish every opportunity. The race was all about not making mistakes. I managed to keep it up right most of the race and ended up with a gap by the end. The pace never seemed that fast as it is difficult to transfer power from the pedals to forward motion in slick mud, good thing it was slimy because I was not feeling that hot after a tough week. The awards party stepped it up a notch this year and the Bistro put together some great eats. A big shout to Matt and crew, it's hard to believe Mr. ADD himself can pull off such a great event week after week, it must be the help!

Despite only having glimpses of the form I know is possible I had a great local cross season, the fields are getting huge and if you have ever considered racing cross in Utah, next year should be the year! Cross is the ultimate family mans sport as it does not take all day and the family can actually watch the racing rather than standing at some feed zone 100 miles from anywhere for a 10 second glimpse of the action. Long live cross in the beehive state.

Clean up is the only bad part of mudin, 2 bikes would been great today but for clean up purposes I am glad I only used one. I also kept my leg warmers on during the race despite the warm temps, simplified clean up- strip the clothes into a plastic bag.




Once again Eva had a great time clapping for the racers and of course chasing dogs.


This morning at 6:45 Eva and I saw the 3 planets in the eastern sky, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus I think, it was cool but if you were not already out of bed it was not worth it. Skied this am but we need more snow. Hiked a freeze creek loop with Eva and Rose and now it is tempting to snow.
Maybe tonight.

Done!

I am mentally and physically cooked. Today I successfully defended and am now the proud owner of a doctoral degree. I don't know if I will have much left for the cross race tomorrow but who knows. It should be muddy but not slick as the temps are much warmer than last week.

I have been inspired by fox and think once cross is over I will do a little cleansing of my own. I am not as hard core as sly but plan to go 1 week eating only fruits, vegetables. I think I have rosie talked into it, will see. It should be intreasting to see how I respond, I won't be doing any riding but plan to ski.

Just finished making a ginger bread house at the neighbor's with a huge ski and bike jump off the roof, completely edible. Now it's time to rest my bones.

polytrauma

Good to be home. Quick trips to the East coast are tough. Between Sunday and Tuesday I flew to New Hampshire, drove to Dartmouth, sat in a working conference for 12 hrs/day and flew home. I am not complaining as I don't want to start sounding like Wells, I love me job.

The conference was on Polytrauma, meaning those with multiple severe life altering injuries. Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) is like no other conflict in that medical care and body armor are so advanced that soldiers are living that previously would have died. For every casualty there are 10 severe injuries. The nature of these injuries is often so severe and so overlapping of systems that conventional treatment techniques are not always adequate. For example a soldiers humvee is hit by an IED and the blast injury leaves the soldier with upper and lower extremity amputations, severe burns, loss of hearing, mild traumatic brain injury, and post traumatic stress disorder. Bad stuff! So this conference brought together the nations leaders in trauma medicine, prosthetics, robotics, rehabilitation, neural implantation, virtual reality, sensory restoration, and psychiatry to develop a better management plan and research strategy for these complicated issues. I won't get into politics and the current fiasco in the mid East but historically one legacy of war time is improved Medicine, and this one is no different.

So after so much mental stimulation, today I finally got some physical stimulation. The valley is ugly but up in the canyon is pretty nice. From the house it looks like I could walk out over the valley on the cloud of particulates. I rode for 2 hours and was only a little uncomfortable due to soreness from an attempted early morning run in the forest of NH.

peace

Sore

Skiing yesterday was great, I got a little carried away for my 1st time out this year and am paying the price today.

Word on the street is this cold weather is killing all the base milers out there and surely some trainers are getting some use. I could not hack it, cycling is hard enough without having to stare at a tv and watch sweat pool underneath me. I would rather ride in a subzero blizzerd than pedal without going anywhere. I love experimenting with layers, you can dress for anything Utah has to offer. Don't get sucked in by the trainer/tv combo as the outside is much more intreasting. I saw another moose yesterday.
To me weather is a mental game, I live Utah and I want to be outside, thus I will win the game by enjoying any kind of weather. Don't get me wrong, I love summer but man do I appreciate it more after riding at speeds higher than the temp.

On a different note my USADA case is heating up but I am still not able to comment on things yet, it's only a matter of time.

This weekend I have to pack alot of fun into a short amount of time as I am leaving for New Hampshire on Sunday for a polytrauma conference at Dartmouth college. Should be good but I wish I had time to ski, I don't know if they have snow but the campus grooms like 25 km.

See ya at the Fort!